title: Weight, gender, and snack appeal.
abstract: In this study, we hypothesized that overweight/obese persons have an exaggerated approach tendency toward high calorie foods. Testing this hypothesis, a stimulus response compatibility (SRC) task was used to assess approach-avoidance tendencies toward food in both overweight/obese participants (n=42), and normal weight controls (n=46). The SRC task is a reaction time task measuring how fast one approaches and avoids pictures of food and non-foods according to given instructions. It was found that overweight/obese men are slower at avoiding particularly high calorie snack foods. But this does not appear to be the case for overweight/obese women who showed nearly as fast avoidance as approach toward the high calorie food cues. It is concluded that overweight/obese women, rather than men, are ambivalent toward high calorie foods, which is the likely result of high dietary restraint.
authors.affiliation: Maastricht University, Faculty of Psychology & Neuroscience, Dept. Clinical Psychological Science, Maastricht, TheNetherlands. r.havermans@maastrichtuniversity.nl.
authors.forename: Remco C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Havermans
authors.forename: Janneke C A H
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Giesen
authors.forename: Katrijn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Houben
authors.forename: Anita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jansen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001290:Attitude; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002755:Choice Behavior; D004041:Dietary Fats; D004435:Eating / Q000523:psychology*; D002149:Energy Intake; D057140:Fast Foods; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D009765:Obesity / Q000523:psychology*; D050177:Overweight / Q000523:psychology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D012016:Reference Values; D012737:Sex Factors; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D004041:Dietary Fats